Discipleship – Walking In Power with Nate Ortiz

Hey everyone, this is Nate Ortiz and this is Walking and Power and today I want to

talk to you about discipleship.

Now, when we hear the word discipleship, there might be some different thoughts that come

to your mind.

You might think of the 12 disciples who were with Jesus and walked with them.

You might think of a discipleship and just your relationship with God and how you grow

and develop.

And I just want to just take a moment to unpack this a little bit.

Your discipleship is something just more than what we do than a function is just really how

we live our lives.

It's really this idea that what we do, how we go, it's really shaped by us following Jesus.

Now, for all of us, that looks different.

It's not going to look the same as the person next to you.

It's not going to be the same as the person that you may go in your family or whatever

that might look like.

But what is God asking you to do and how do you develop yourself as a disciple of Jesus?

I want to look at a passage scripture in Matthew 4 verse 19.

It says, come follow me, Jesus said, and I will send you out to fish for people.

Now we read that verse and it's unique and it's, what does that mean?

You know, the fissure of people.

You know, when Jesus went to the disciples, there were some of them who were fishermen.

That was their trade, that was their gift, that was their skills, how they made their livelihood

where they just went out and they fished and they put them, that's the water and they

bring that in and they would sell it and they'd keep them from themselves.

But they were professionals of what they did.

When Jesus came to them and told them, listen, you fish, essentially you fish for fish,

but I want to make you fish for people.

Meaning like, you're going to have this understanding in your life who I am as Jesus, the

coming Messiah.

And we're going to literally transform the world if you become my disciples and you walk

with me and learn and just grow.

And when we think about the disciples, this is why you have to remember.

Now all of them were, these weren't the people that you would think, oh, this is the

crew that we're going to use.

Like Jesus was pulling people from all different spaces that had different backgrounds and skill

sets, but he used them to be the disciples and the prerequisite for being in a disciple

of Jesus is to realize that one, you need them in your life and then two, your life is

crafted through what the scriptures say and that you follow him.

But looking at this passage of scripture, I want to focus on a few thoughts here that I

think are worth noting.

When Jesus gives an invitation to his disciples and when he gives an invitation to you, it's

very just he'll give you the invitation to follow.

And when he gives that invitation to follow, it's very decisive.

So when you think about discipleship, you have to understand that whether you are being

disciples, or you want to disciple someone, you give them the opportunity, the invitation

to follow and whether they look at your life, you say, hey, follow him as I follow Christ,

but or they just say, I really need to relate to Jesus and I want to know him more.

There always is the invitation to follow.

And Jesus calls to disciples as always personal.

Jesus didn't walk around the street and just say, well, whoever wants to be one disciple

could be my disciple.

Now get specific people that he asked and he gave the invitation out to him.

He didn't beg them to come and then say, please, please, please, I really need you.

No one else is going to do this.

He simply puts the invitation out and these people followed.

The invitation, it's always an open-handed invitation people.

God will never force things on you, right?

There's things that he lays out through scriptures, but he always gives the invitation to walk

into that.

And it's up to us if we say, how far do I want to go with God?

You know, those are all the things that says, where you stop is where you stop.

And so with God, if you decide why I'm just going to go church and ask them to base

the relationship, then that's where it all stopped.

But if you say, I feel like I want to go deeper on what God is saying, I want to craft

my life around what the scriptures are communicating, right?

There can be some times it will be hard and difficult, but it's going to be worth it.

So just as it called his first, the simple command, come follow me.

He continues to call each and every one of us every day to follow him.

The moment we wake up in the day, we have this option just to go about our day and not

think about things or have an opportunity to say, Lord, let this day be about you, how

I respond to people, how I reflect to you.

May that be evident in my life.

Let people know that I'm a disciple of you.

The word of God says people will know where is the disciples by the way we love.

If you are a disciple of Jesus, there's going to be ways that you enter into that, but

the invitation every single day, but also a way that you are living it and people see

that in your life that it's different.

But all such the invitation to follow and you accept to get it.

The second thing that I want to talk about in this with discipleship is transformational

purpose.

When we come into disciples Jesus, there's going to be a little transformational purpose that

takes place in your life.

I don't ever feel like, well, if I have Jesus, that's good and it's good for me and I

don't have to share it with people.

I don't want to push it on people.

I don't want to do that.

We're not talking about pushing things on people.

We believe that when you live your life in a way that is honoring to God and honoring to

the Scriptures because it's laid out there, there are going to be things that happen

aside of you, long before it shows other people.

Your purpose is about what happens in us.

This transformative purpose that God gives us, this life in him.

This is about what happens in us and the natural overflow of that will impact people around

us.

When you're in that environment where you're saying, Lord, I want to have a strong prayer

life with you.

I want to grow.

I want to memorize the Scripture.

Have my heart that man, I sit against you.

When you begin to do that, it's a match going to overflow to other people.

The example that people often use is you've ever been around a bonfire when you're there.

You don't really smell like the bonfire as much you're aware of it.

But then it goes on and you don't really realize it.

If you ever got home and maybe in your college or whatever and you throw your hoodie on

the floor, the next one when you wake up, you pick it up and it smells like that bonfire

is so strong.

The same way when you spend time with God, there's a transformation that takes place in

life.

Even when we never realize after a while, but the people around you will notice in this verse,

he promises to make the disciples' fishermen of men.

This illustrates the disciples involved in transformation of purpose and priorities where

it calls not just the phologies, but to actively participate in his mission of spreading the

gospel and making disciples.

So when Jesus gave them this invitation, it's saying, listen, it's going to transform

so many aspects of your life.

You're used to fishing for fish, but you're going to fish for men.

You're used to being in your livelihood.

You're going to rely on people to provide as you go to town to town and you're going to

be sitting with people and breaking right with them.

It's going to look completely different.

You're going to be leaving your family for a period of time, but they knew their purpose

in God was literally transformational and it was and it was the living on change of

trajectory of the whole world with what God did with setting a sun Jesus to disciple these

people.

And the last thing I want to say is continually develop.

When you have discipleship in your life, there's going to be an invitation to follow.

You have transformational purpose, but then you'll also be continually developing, continually

developing.

Where you're not going to be saying, well, except the rest of my life, that's it.

I'm good.

Every day, there are going to be things that God has to be speaking to you, encouraging

you to grow and things you need to change, things you need to just make a healing from.

But you are our goal in this life.

And I'd say, well, I've achieved all I have at a certain age, but say, Lord, a lot

of me continually develop and not just say stuck, not just stay, just not budging on certain

things in my life that you want to move and speak to me.

Jesus calls to follow him and applies that we are actively engaged in what he's doing.

So whether you are young, whether you are older, how are you actively involved in making

disciples or pouring into people and helping them grow in their faith?

I mean, who is that group of people?

Maybe in a slightly larger group, they're about Jesus.

Jesus had 12.

Who are the people that you said?

These are my people that I know.

Like Jesus, if I was removed, I know these people were going to care out the work.

Who are those people that say, if I was gone, I know they would still be pursuing the Lord.

I know they'd be still growing in their faith.

I think it's a point where we identify those people.

Because if we just receive from church and great teachings and just what we do on these

calls, and we just receive and don't give away, I think we're missing the true heart of

discipleship.

Because Jesus didn't come to this earth to say, it's about me and what can I accomplish

and what can I attain in my life?

Jesus, how can I impact other people that can impact other people?

I think that's the beautiful thing about the Christian faith that not everything can

begin with us or ends with us.

The word says that you're got the alphanel makeover.

He's beginning to end.

In our lives, we have an opportunity to participate in that.

Who knows the impact we can have when we begin to disciple our cells, number one, and number

two, and disciple others.

I hope you have a great day.

Just think about these thoughts of what it looks like for you to be disciples.

And you're disciples and others because that is the heart of God.

So hope you have an amazing week, amazing month.

Be blessed.

We'll catch you next time.